Pages

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Hegel on Universal Consciousness and Reason - Summary (The Phenomenology of Spirit)

The contradictions or divisions implicit in
self-consciousness are overcome in the third phase of The Phenomenology of Spirit when the finite subject rises to
universal consciousness. At this level self-consciousness no longer takes the
form of one-sided awareness of oneself as an individual subject threatened by and in conflict
with other self-conscious beings. Rather
there is full recognition of self and the self in others. This is at least
implicitly the awareness of the universal, the infinite Spirit, in and through
finite selves, binding them together and yet not annulling them
(identity-in-difference). [Note this is genuine community – also
psychologically – although that is not Hegel’s claim.] While this awareness is implicit and imperfectly developed in moral consciousness (in which the one
rational will expresses itself in a multiplicity of concrete moral vocations in
the social order), this awareness of identity-in-difference, which is
characteristic of the life of the Spirit, attains higher and higher expression
in developed religious consciousness
(for which the one divine God is present in all). Here in religious consciousness, unhappy consciousness is overcome and the
true self is no longer conceived of as ideal and hopelessly alienated, but
rather becomes the living core of the actual self which expresses itself in and
through its finite manifestations.

This third phase of the phenomenological history of
consciousness, which Hegel generally calls Reason, is represented by a
synthesis of consciousness (1st phase) and self-consciousness (2nd
phase). In the first phase the finite subject is aware of the sensible object
as external and heterogenous to itself. In the second phase, the subject’s
attention is turned back to itself as finite subject. In the third phase, the
subject sees nature as the objective expression of infinite Spirit with which
it is then united. Now this latter consciousness can take on different forms.

For example, in developed religious consciousness the subject sees nature as the creation and
manifestation of God, with whom it is united in the depth of its being and
through whom it is united with other selves (we are all part of God’s
creation). But the truth of this religious consciousness is expressed figuratively and pictorially, where at
the stage of philosophical reflection this truth is apprehended philosophically/conceptually. Here the
finite subject is explicitly conscious of its inmost self as a moment in the
life of the infinite and universal Spirit, as a moment of absolute Thought. As
such the subject sees nature as its own
objectification and as a precondition of its own life as actually existing
Spirit. This does not mean that nature is merely the product of subjectivity
rather the finite subject sees itself as more than finite and as a moment in
the innermost life of the absolute Spirit (self-thinking Thought). Or, in other
words, absolute knowledge is the phase at which the Absolute thinks itself as
identity-in-difference (nature and history) in and through the finite mind of
the philosopher.

3rd phase of consciousness: Reason

Just as Hegel develops the three main phases of the
phenomenology of consciousness, he also develops the third phase of Reason
through a series of dialectical phases.

(1) Reason as gaining a glimpse of its own reflection in
nature (through the idea of finality,
for example),

(2) as turning inwards in the study of formal logic and
empirical psychology, and finally (3) as manifesting itself in a series of
practical ethical attitudes, ranging from the pursuit of happiness, to
criticism of universal moral law dictated by practical reason which follows
from the recognition of the fact that universal law stands in need of so many
qualifications that it loses all it definite meaning.

This sets the stage for the transition to concrete moral life in society.

Here Hegel moves from the unreflective ethical life in which
human beings simply follow customs/traditions to the form of culture in which
individual are estranged from their unreflective background and pass judgment
on it. The synthesis occurs in developed
moral consciousness for which the rational will is not something over and above
individuals in society but a common life binding them together as free persons.
The first stage is unreflective (as in Greek society before the sophists), the
second is reflective but estranged from society and traditions, and in the
third stage the Spirit is ethically sure of itself in the form of community of
free persons embodying the general will as a living unity (reminiscent of
Rousseau).

This living unity in which each member of the community is
for the others a free self demands a explicit recognition of the idea of
identity-in-difference, of a life which is present in all as their inner bond
of unity though it does not annihilate them as individuals. Thus it demands the
explicit recognition of the idea of the concrete universal which differentiates
itself into or manifests itself in the particulars uniting them within itself. In other words, morality passes
dialectically into religion. In religion we see the Absolute Spirit
becoming explicitly conscious of itself. But religion of course also has a
history. Thus, Hegel distinguishes natural
religion (wherein the divine is seen in nature), to religion of art or the beautiful (such as in Greek religion,
self-consciously associated with nature – as in the statue of deity), and
finally in absolute religion wherein
the Absolute is seen as Spirit, nature as divine creation, namely as the
expression of the Word. Of course, religion expresses itself in the pictorial/figurative
mode and it therefore demands to be transmuted into the conceptual (infinite self-thinking). Thought knows itself in nature
(as its objectification and the condition of its own actualization), and
recognizes in the history of culture with its successive forms and levels its
own Odyssey. The Totality (God) comes to know itself through the finite human
spirit.

In summary, in the Phenomenology of Spirit
Hegel starts at the lowest levels of human consciousness and works
dialectically to the level at which the human mind attains the absolute point
of view and becomes a vehicle of infinite self-conscious Spirit. The
connections between one level and the next are often very loose, logically
speaking. And some of the stages are obviously suggested not so much by the
demands of a dialectical development as by Hegel’s reflections on the spirits
and attitudes of different cultural phases or epochs.

No comments:

Post a Comment

If you found what you were looking for and it helped you out, please consider helping me out by tipping whatever you feel is worthy of my efforts. Thank you! :)

Anything to add?

Got article summeries, reviews, essays, notes, anything you've worked hard on and think could benfit others? why not contribute and mail them to us and we'll put them up for others to use (with credit).